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Digital Graphics XI - Computer Art Gallery 11

Computer art is art where computers are used in its production. This definition can expand to include movies and sounds. The field is relatively new, since computers didn't exist much before the 1960s. One of the earliest examples involves Desmond Paul Henry who displayed his machine-generated art in London in 1962 as the prize in a local competition at Salford Art gallery. In the 1940's, Mr Henry designed an analog bombsite computer which used mechanical means, not digital electronics to calculate when to drop a bomb. His early artistic works were generated by a machine, a mechanical device based on the analog bombsite computers. The machines were not programmed to create art, but were instead released, producing a unique piece of artwork each time since the machines gyrated randomly for hours or days with a pen protruding directly onto a piece of paper.

In 1968, after a computer art show, Cybernetic Serendipity, The Computer Arts Society (CAS) was founded by three founders. CAS has supported computer artists for decades, and continues to meet in London to this day.

Algorithmic Art

Now days, computer art is more commonly generated with fancy numerical algorithms that use calculations to control each aspect of the result. One of the more famous forms of this algorithmic art is the mandelbrot set.